This weekend I saw Paul Blart: Mall Cop at my home theater. This movie was about Paul Blart, the protagonist, who is struggling to support his daughter. His wife used him to get citizenship in America and then ran away with her true love. Paul lives with his daughter and mother in his mother’s house. He is also overweight, mainly due to his diet. His dream is to become a member of the New Jersey State Police. However, due to his medical condition of being hypoglycemic, he fails the entrance exam. Resulting from this, he ends up being a security guard at a local mall. He takes his job very seriously in hopes to join the police force someday. One day at the mall, Blart takes notice of one of the sales clerks at one of the kiosks at the mall. Her name is Amy and he immediately fancies her. Soon after, Blart’s new assignment is to train the “new rookie” Veck Simmons.

Veck Simmons isn’t really a rookie. He is the leader of a terrorist originization determined to rob the mall of all it’s money. Veck and his crew lock up the mall and take hostages. Blart is essentially is at the wrong place at the wrong time, as he happens to be the only “officer” in the mall when this is all taking place. Commander Kent of the SWAT team directs Blart to the exit, but Blart stays stating, “It’s his duty as an officer of the mall to help the people of this mall.”

Pulling off unreal stunts and stunning the audience with his moves, Blart manages to free all the hostages and takes down all the hostiles. However, at the last minute, Kent reveals his true motives and points a gun at Blart, demanding the money Simmons acquired through the robbery. Blart, again, surprisingly overpowers Kent and with his stunts he manages to take down Kent and put him in handcuffs.

At the end of the movie, Blart ends up receiving an offer to join the police force. However, he turns down the offer stating, that “protecting the mall is his duty.”  Blart earns respect from his peers, colleagues, and superiors. At the very last scene of the movie, Blart ends up marrying Amy with their vows being said at the mall.

Before watching this movie, I initially had high expectations with this movie as Steve Carr was the director and in the past he has directed some of the most phenomenal movies that I have ever watched which received high acclaim on IMDB. However, after finishing this film, I was left disappointed. The film had a poor plot, with underdeveloped character developments and the narration was terrible leaving the viewer confused. The film was so confusing that I was lost in the chronology of the events in the film.

I thought the best scene in the film was when Blart single handedly took down the crooks in the mall by creatively using his environment to his own advantage. The acting was good, but as I stated already the direction was not too great. This was more of a comedy than anything else, which made the film slightly less bad. However, the great acting could not cover up the poor direction.

The direction of the film could be better if the film started in chronological order instead of skipping around from the future to the past and then to the present. For example, instead of showing Paul Blart being offered a position in the police force in the beginning, they could have only showed that scene in the end the of the movie. By implementing this, the viewer would not be confused in the chronology of the film.

Despite receiving below average reviews on several film critique websites including Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, the film actually was a box office success. I believe this was due to the comedic aspects of this film which is what a good portion of the audience enjoys, me included!

All things considered, I would recommend this film for viewers who enjoy comedies and don’t mind a subpar story. However, if you decide not to watch this film, you will not be missing out on anything spectacular. This film did not win any awards and for good reason. This film is directed towards children, teens, and adults who just enjoy comedy. Readers may learn more about this film on IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic. Out of ten points, I would give this film a six. Also, if you enjoyed this film be sure to watch the sequel which was just recently released in theaters.